Replicate
by Alahnore
Summary: They were all too late, and soon he was the only thing left. Eventually, he knows, there'd be absolutely nothing left. \\ 'Ersatz Heart' related. Heavy angst. Character death


It was eerily quiet, and it was something Flynn never really adapted to. He had disabled the tracking of time in his systems, to save on power, so he had no idea just how long he had been here. How long it had been since then. But the passage of time hardly mattered—his life had been shut down the day Yuri succumbed to the contamination.

Even now Flynn knew parts of his synthetic flesh were being gradually, slowly eaten away by the corrosive particles in the air. What could be mistaken as mist or dew was really molecules of the very chemical that ate away at Yuri's insides, ruptured his organs and made his last moments complete agony. And Flynn had watched him writhe on the bed sheets, tried to hold him and soothe him like all the times Yuri did for him. _But none of it mattered._

Yuri died in his arms, blood streaming from his very pores. Around them in the hospital, around the world, millions of humans were dying in waves. Those not quite dead yet but well on the way were shut away in isolation, sometimes alone, sometimes with their android. Yuri was one such person. He was denied painkillers to make his passing somewhat bearable.

Flynn saw it all. And he was locked in that room alone for days with Yuri's body, because the outside was afraid coming to retrieve it for burial would contaminate what little was left in the world.

But finally Flynn forced the door open, Yuri's corpse in his arms. He would see his beloved buried, come erosion or annihilation. Yet no one stopped him, because there _was_ no one to stop him.

Flynn had carried Yuri all the way to their residence, which had been ransacked at some point. Even still, he cleaned up Yuri the best he could, because it would be an injustice to bury him as is. The movements, the motions he did, were all auto-pilot and robotic. He was an android after all… he could shut down the emotion chip. He had do, else he would not have made it out of the isolation chamber.

He had dressed Yuri in better clothes, wrapped him lovingly, but in the back of his programming was the illogical desire to see Yuri wake up. But he never did, not the entire time Flynn carried him and found him a clean casket. Yuri never stirred as Flynn set him inside, kissed his lips one more time before placing that old Heart Loop over Yuri's own heart, if it were still in Yuri's chest. Flynn couldn't bring himself to use any sort of technology to check.

He closed the casket, locked it, found a place for it and buried it. All around he saw bodies and corpses, rotting in the abandoned streets. Here and there he saw other androids, dazed and confused as they wandered. The older models were already showing heavy signs of corrosion—their 'skin' nearly completely eaten away, the metal plates making up their body beginning to rust. Newer models still looked fresh, yet in their optics, translating their signals and calls, Flynn knew they were no better off.

What few humans survived the contamination fled, leaving behind their creations.

Flynn tried to ignore them, though. But soon, with no guidance and their programming failing, androids began to attack each other. Power cores failing caused them to go after those still functional, ripping apart older models for their pieces. Flynn tried to rescue who he could, but in exchange, he was attacked by the so called victim.

Not even his own 'kind' were anything but robotic animals now. Flynn withdrew as he could, retreating from where they congregated and found himself staying near Yuri's grave, the one he had dug. The tombstone he had found, engraved himself, set himself.

The streets nearby used to be filled with the synthetic screeches of insane androids, the clanging of limbs being torn apart or remains falling to the cracked ground. There were no insects or maggots to eat the human bodies, so they rotted every day, every night, in pools of blood and flesh until the contamination and sun baked the meat into the pieces of civilization left. No birds flew overhead, no plants bloomed.

Soon, Flynn began to notice less screams. Less clanging. No other android came to the graveyard, where Flynn remained huddled to the tombstone of his beloved.

Eventually, everything was silent. No screams. No clanging. Not even a breeze to shift the pebbles around. Even still, Flynn didn't leave Yuri's grave, because he knew there was nothing left. The other androids either destroyed themselves or moved on, but he could only imagine the rest of the world was no better.

Flynn was sure he was the only thing left on this rotting planet. Left behind, and left alone, staring at the grave of the person who made him more than just an assembled heap of metal and wires. Flynn wasn't sure how long it had been, but since Yuri died he hadn't felt like that at all. He was just an android now… there was no way he was human, not in the least. Not without Yuri.

Flynn barely moved, but he had to keep some sort of movement up else his joints would rust in place. He placed his hand over his face, his optics still on the clumsily engraved name on the tombstone. His body had been shaking when he made it, however long ago it was. The stone itself was starting to erode, just like his skin.

Yet for all his despair and grieving, not a single tear came out of Flynn's eyes.

Flynn tried. He turned on his emotion chip, because someone had to grieve for Yuri. He turned it on to the maximum setting. He recalled every instance Yuri was with him, since the beginning; all the times he felt human, all the times Yuri was there. The pain, one he couldn't numb with a line of code, mounted in his Heart Loop. It felt like it was overheating, about to explode in its cavity, but even still not a tear came to his eyes.

Wasn't it that tears were what proved someone was truly feeling? Tears would prove Flynn was grieving, would prove he missed Yuri… wouldn't they? But none were coming out, and for all the pain Flynn felt spread throughout his being there was none to be had. He couldn't cry. Couldn't grieve.

_But I miss you!_

Flynn's voice box had long since been shut down, and he didn't want to reroute power to it again. He could only scream in his mind, his voice bouncing around in his fake skull as electrical currents washing over a circuit board.

_I love you!_

But he wasn't human. He couldn't cry, couldn't express it. There was no true heart, no natural soul or feeling. Did that mean Yuri would be forgotten, with no one to grieve for him, to miss and pine for him? Flynn's mouth would move, but no sound would leave his lips. If he were human, he was sure he would be sobbing now. That he would have enough tears to bring back plants, so that maybe Yuri could have flowers at his grave.

Yet there was nothing. Nothing to give, nothing to be had. Just like the earth Flynn was desolate of anything natural, of anything to give life. For all the love, life and happiness Yuri had given him; Flynn could not even shed a single tear. All those times Flynn said he loved him now seemed like a cruel, horrible lie. His very existence was a lie… and Yuri died with only a lie loving him. Died loving a lie.

_But why?_

Out of everyone, why Yuri? Why couldn't Yuri have lived, gone with the rest of humanity, wherever they went? Even if Flynn was left behind then… he could handle it. If Yuri was alive and happy somewhere, Flynn could…

No. Flynn dropped his hand from his face, hugging himself. No he wouldn't be fine. He couldn't handle it. He had been left behind and alone and he was going to eventually shut down. He was going to 'die' and he… he'd never see Yuri again. Even if he died.

He wasn't real, after all.

Realization shattered something in Flynn and he shook his head, slowly at first, but then quicker every few seconds. He wasn't real… he'd never, _never_ see Yuri again! He could die a thousand times but he'd never return to Yuri's side! He'll never see those beautiful eyes, never hear that husky voice, never be held by those strong arms again! _Never_, because Yuri was human and humans could go to heaven.

But Flynn was fake and he would simply _stop existing._

Nothing would remember him. There'd be nothing. Flynn would _be_ nothing and he'd be alone, no matter what. He _was_ alone. There was no hope, so sliver of a chance of meeting Yuri in the afterlife. He had no soul!

If his voice box was operational Flynn's scream would have echoed across the sky. But the only sounds to fill the chemical-laden air was the noise of tearing synthetics, of banging plates as Flynn ripped off clumps of his now-thinned skin, slammed his exposed plates against the group and other tombstones. The ground littered with pieces of skin, with little droplets of reddish oil and coolant. He couldn't even bleed properly.

Soon his arms were bare of flesh, dripping with loosed oils between dented and shifted plates. Flynn grabbed Yuri's tombstone, bowing his head and shaking for some reason. He couldn't compute why. He didn't want to. Why did it matter? Nothing mattered. And he was _nothing_.

He wanted to see Yuri. See that brilliant smile, share his hopes and desires. To hold Yuri's hand, feel that natural and comforting warmth. The fights, the spats, the bad moments… even those were precious. But even if Flynn destroyed himself now it wouldn't matter.

So why did he hang on anymore? Flynn closed his eyes tightly, gritting his teeth and hearing the cogwheels inside click. There was no point hanging on. He could destroy himself… kill himself. Rip himself apart piece by piece. Maybe he'd cry then. Maybe he'd give Yuri his proper grieving then.

_I failed you._

Flynn opened his eyes, staring at his arms. No, he shouldn't start with those, he'd need his hands. His eyes drift to his legs, still clad in the clothes he had worn to the hospital with Yuri. Still stained red with Yuri's blood. That was the only part of Yuri he had left… the blood Yuri had shed on his deathbed.

That day, when Flynn was left behind, left alone…

He was the only thing left in the world, Flynn was sure. Even if he could salvage the parts, find the technology working, even if he could make an android version of Yuri it wouldn't be the same. Even in his failing programming Flynn knew that. He'd be alone. He'd shut down, die alone.

There was nothing left for him. No reason to go on. Flynn let go of Yuri's grave, grabbed at his clothes and shred them off. The air filled with rips and creaks, the ground burdened with pieces of cloth and Flynn's body.

Like his arms he ripped off the skin first. Piece by piece, letting the pain overload any other sensation module. After the skin he began to tear off plates, rip apart wires. Warning dialogue boxes filled his peripherals, but he ignored them all. Power automatically rerouted, his oil and coolant circulation system changing to compensate.

A human couldn't do that. But Flynn wasn't human. And, piece by piece, he wouldn't even be an android anymore.

He got through one leg before he had to stop, staring at the carnage of it with wide eyes. He pulled off every piece until all that was left was the metal poles making up his 'skeleton.' Yet in his memory, he could recall watching Yuri's hand lazily slid up his leg; the sensation of wet warmth from a bath trailing that touch.

But he'd never feel that again. Flynn hesitated though, his hands on his other leg, freezing there. What good would it be to rip himself to pieces like an animal?

_I won't survive. I can't. I'll go mad. I am mad._

He shouldn't prolong it. Yuri… would be disappointed. Upset. The thought of upsetting Yuri sliced through the madness, the pain, and Flynn's face twisted into an expression of despair. But no sound, no… it was too late for that now.

Instead Flynn's hands moved away from his leg, going further up. Memories of Yuri snuggling close, of Yuri touching and kissing and smiling and laughing and _being alive_ filled Flynn's memory space, the movies pushing aside all of the warning boxes.

"_Yours."_

"_Yours."_

Yuri had smiled, so warm, so honest. Flynn held onto that memory as his fingers shredded the skin off his chest, pulled apart the plates and frayed out the wires. He pried the metal cage apart, breaking off the rods until he could grasp the prize within.

_All yours._

Flynn gripped the Heart Loop tightly, his body overloading with warnings and errors. Something akin to pain, but worse somehow, flooded every remaining wire and circuit. For that split second after he ripped the Heart Loop out, that pain intensified to unimaginable levels.

His heart dropped over Yuri's grave like an offering, and even still, he couldn't shed a single tear. The gears that made up Flynn's body ran long enough for him to slump over, leaning against the tombstone heavily before they went silent. The tiny lights in him blinked out, everything coming to a deathly standstill. Once more, there was silence.

Once more, there was nothing.


End file.
